The church does not dictate individual health care choices. Christian Scientists generally choose spiritual means for preventing and healing disease. Christian Science practitioners offer spiritual healing support. They would not interfere in matters of specific medical treatment.
Jesus Christ, whom the Church holds as its founder, instructed his followers to heal the sick. The early Christians were noted for tending the sick and infirm, and Christian emphasis on practical charity gave rise to the development of systematic nursing and hospitals.
Christian Scientists believe that the primary method of healing should be through prayer, and many members have in the past been against modern medical treatments.
Christianity brought caring communities with indiscriminate personalised care for the ill and aged. This ultimately led to the creation of hospitals as we know them today. Monastic institutions appeared which often had hospitals, and provided a degree of medical scholarship.
Jesus said: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick”—Matthew 9:12. For any one who is sick or a pregnant woman who needs medical attention but refuses a medical treatment is acting in ignorance of the Divine Providence.
We should always seek help from God as well as going for appropriate medical treatment - not instead of doing so. In Matthew 9, the Pharisees asked Jesus why he spent time with sinners. He replied, 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick' (Matthew 9:12). Jesus recognised that sick people need doctors.
Jehovah's Witnesses and Christian Scientists are the two most common religious doctrines that may dictate treatment refusal, limitation, or preference for prayer.
Jehovah's Witnesses refuse blood transfusion. Christian Scientists refuse most medical treatment. Instead they rely on the healing prayers of Christian Scientist Practitioners. The Faith Tabernacle Congregation in Altoona, PA believes that disease is caused by the devil.
Ferngren notes that Christians “valued medicine as God's gift for the natural healing of disease,” citing the words of Sirach 38: 1, 6–7: “Honor the physician with the honor due to him, before you need him…. [For] he [Yahweh] gave skill to men that he might be glorified in his marvelous works” (61).
Hospitals were a very altruistic Christian invention. The word itself is all mixed up with the words hotel and hospitality. By the 4th century AD, newly Christianized Romans began running homes for the sick and needy. By the 8th century, the functions of Christian hospitals, or hospices, were highly specialized.
Everyone has the duty to care for his or her own health or to seek such care from others. Those whose task it is to care for the sick must do so conscientiously and administer the remedies that seem necessary or useful.
Religion hindered the development of medicine to a partial extent because the Church prohibited dissections and people followed supernatural remedies. However, it established universities and hospitals to treat people as well. Religion did contribute positively to the progress of medicine by establishing hospitals.
Hospitals were a very altruistic Christian invention. The word itself is all mixed up with the words hotel and hospitality. By the 4th century AD, newly Christianized Romans began running homes for the sick and needy. By the 8th century, the functions of Christian hospitals, or hospices, were highly specialized.
A nurse leader with Christian values shows unconditional love and acceptance, regardless of the circumstances. They understand that these emotions need to be expressed in different ways depending on the situation — ranging from gentleness to a more direct “tough love” approach.
Patients often turn to their religious and spiritual beliefs when making medical decisions. Religion and spirituality can impact decisions regarding diet, medicines based on animal products, modesty, and the preferred gender of their health providers.
Everyone has the duty to care for his or her own health or to seek such care from others. Those whose task it is to care for the sick must do so conscientiously and administer the remedies that seem necessary or useful.